All of us know that closures are essential to beverage and food packaging and for the consumer the closure is the gateway to the product experience. Most rigid containers and packages require a means of closing. It can be a separate device or seal or sometimes an integral latch or lock. Depending on the contents and container, closures have several functions.

Closures help in securing the product, improving shelf life, provide a barrier to dirt, oxygen, moisture, etc. Caps and closures also help in re-closing or reusing the container and assist in dispensing and measured consumption of the product.

The metal and plastic closures have been used to protect products since long, but over time, these closures have evolved and have become part of the brand.

Types of closures:-

Closures need to be attached to the container with sufficient security. Threads, lugs, hinges, locks, adhesives, etc. are used. In terms of possible options, thousands of different closure designs exist, although only some of the closures are commercially successful and widespread. Most of the closures need to accommodate slight manufacturing variation in the container and the closure structure.

Container closing process can be broadly divided into three phases.

• Closure orientation and feeding

• Closure placement OR Application

• Sealing

Depending upon the machine, closure and container type and user requirements, various methods to execute the above processes are followed.

Screw caps are threaded caps and require torque to be tightened onto various containers. However, there are many variations of the screw caps, simple flat caps, sports caps, flip top caps, press top caps & trigger sprayers etc.

Spindle capping machines and chuck cappers will normally handle screw caps, with a few exceptions. Many screw type caps require special chucks or chuck inserts for the extended / shaped tops. The choice of capping machines will depend on your cap, your container and your production requirements.

Usually, the containers are fed into the capping station via an in-feed star wheel, bringing the container below the capping head. The rotating head grabs a cap from the cap star wheel, which receives the caps from the delivery chute of the cap filling bowl. The body and the neck of the container are positioned below the rotating head, where the sealing head performs perfect operation of capping. The rotating head is design to seal container according to the pre-set torque.